Safety Tips - Women

Don't take safety for granted.

Your well-being is your sole responsibility. Keep your eyes open and look out for yourself.
While you're at it, open the eyes of others you know by sharing these potentially
life-saving safety and security tips with them. In doing so, you just might prevent
your friends, family members from becoming the next crime victim.

Today's crime statistics indicate women are more commonly the victims of crime compared to men. This is because the majority of today's criminals are males, many of whom view women as being a lot easier to dominate and overpower. Of course, women are quite capable of fighting off their assailants. But do you really want to find out if that's something you can do? Surely not.

Although there's no fool-proof way to stop crime against women, by incorporating the following safety and security tips into your daily life, you can significantly decrease your chance of becoming a victim.

Always be alert and aware of your surroundings. No matter if you're walking outside to check the mail box or returning to your car after picking up a few things from the grocery store, be vigilant of your surroundings at all times. Look all around to ensure no one is following you or loitering nearby.

Always check and evaluate your surrounding before get out.Adopt a habit of stopping at your exit door/gate/car for few seconds before stepping out and look around for any suspicious persons standing around, or any vehicles parked unusually. Most attacks happens when least expected.

Expect the unexpected in the last few steps. If friend/family/someone giving you lift home, or walking with you to your home at night, always make sure the person wait until you get into your home. Do not assume nothing can happen during the last few steps to your home.

Avoid being an easy target. Women are easy target for handbag / laptop-bag snatching crimes. Always hold your bag on the curb side of the street. If possible hang your handbag cross shoulder. If possible use backpack style laptop bags. If your bag get snatched, just let it go to avoid being dragged along the street and get injured.

Avoid talking and texting on your phone when out in public. To be aware of your surroundings, you need to be free of distractions. So if you're going to be walking around the mall, put away your cell phone and pay attention.

Park in areas that are well lit and where people can see you. Avoid parking in areas that are dimly lit or secluded. The more light and the more people there are, the less risk you have of being targeted by a thug. If at any time you don't feel comfortable walking from a store to your car, listen to your gut and ask for an escort. If the store doesn't have a security guard on hand, a store employee or two will do.

Have your car keys in hand before walking to your car. Don't wait until you get to your car to find your keys. Retrieving them from your purse before you leave your house, your office, or the store will eliminate the distraction of trying to find them as you walk to your car. If you have a newer model vehicle, don't forget about the "panic button" on your keychain (key fob). Pushing the button will sound the horn of your car like an alarm, signaling passerby’s that you may be in trouble.

In addition to checking your surroundings, check the interior of your vehicle before entering it. Some criminals will hide near or inside a targeted victim's vehicle. No matter if your car is parked at home, at work, or at a local shopping center, always look inside and around your vehicle as you approach it.

Vary your daily routine. Some perpetrators look for patterns in their victims' routines and behavior. Knowing when their victims come and go makes it much easier for criminals to carry out their crimes without getting caught. Varying the time you arrive home from work or school and the route you take home can decrease your risk of being targeted. If you walk the dog or jog around your neighborhood at a certain time of day, be sure to change the timeframe and the route as frequently as possible.

When agreeing to meet with someone you don't know very well, meet in a public place. Many women meet men online these days, but that doesn't mean every man you meet has good intentions. If you're going to meet someone that you don't know all that well in person, be sure to arrange the meeting in a public place. Do not allow a man you've just met to take you to a secluded area, no matter how nice and innocent he may appear. Also, be sure you tell someone you know about where you will be, along with any personal information you have on the individual you're meeting, including their name, phone number, etc. In addition, never share where you live or any other private information with someone you've just met.

Learn self defense. Protecting yourself against an attacker doesn't always mean you have to engage in some type of physical combat. If you have an opportunity to escape before physical contact occurs, that's exactly what you should do. However, not every situation will allow you to run away that easily. It many cases, it will be up to you to create your own opportunity of escape by using physical, self-defense methods.

The following are a few generally recommended self-defense methods that can help create the opportunity you need to free yourself from a potentially dangerous attack:

Create a scene by shouting, screaming, and yelling for help as loudly as you can. If you feel threatened but can't run away, shout at the would-be attacker as loud as you can and/or scream and yell for help. This may throw the thug off guard and cause him to step back for a moment, providing the precious seconds you need to escape.

Arm yourself with pepper spray and be prepared to use it. Carrying pepper spray in your purse is never a bad idea. Once equipped with the device, practice retrieving it from your purse and rehearse using it from time to time. This will help keep your response skills fresh and increase your confidence in your ability to protect yourself in a real-life emergency.

Take a self-defense course designed especially for women. Investing a little money and time into a self-defense class or two is worth the potentially life-saving techniques you'll learn. Just be sure to do your research first. Find a class that's taught by a professional who has real-life defense experience, such as an active or retired police officer, military personnel, or martial arts expert.

Finding a self-defense class that's designed around women will ensure you learn protective tactics that can help you escape an attacker, no matter how big or strong he is. Some of the self-defense tactics you can expect to learn in such a class include:

kick to the groin

kick to the knee

neck and/or throat punch

eye gouge

punch on the nose

fingers to the nostrils

Using the weight of the attacker to your advantage

Learning self-defense tactics is never a waste of time or money. The knowledge in itself can bring you a great deal of confidence, which can transfer over to the way you carry yourself. Body language is sometimes all it takes to keep predators at a distance, as many prefer women who appear easy to dominate both physically and psychologically. Through the eyes of a predator, a woman who walks with confidence, with her head up high and her eyes focused on what's going on around her, is a challenge. It would be much easier to wait for a weaker-appearing woman than to take on a more challenging one that could risk him being seen or apprehended.